IMAGINING CULTURES OF COOPERATION: UNIVERSITIES NETWORKING TO FACE THE NEW DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGES

The Proceedings of the CUCS Torino 2013 Congress (19-21 September 2013) represent the final step of a scientific project and of an organisational and relational process that have proved challenging, engaging and ultimately rewording. At the same time the Proceedings testify the growing contribution by the Italian universities to the debate on international development and set a new beginning towards the next CUCS Congress to be held in 2015 in Brescia, as well as towards a more tight and effective cooperation between Politecnico di Torino, University of Turin and all the other actors involved in international development cooperation within the territory of Turin and Piedmont (international organisations, local institutions, NGOs, foundations, private companies…)

The role of cooperation amongst cities, universities, research bodies and civil society organizations on urban food policies in Africa as innovative actions in the cadre of the Milan urban food policy pact

Within the framework of the international debate focusing on experiences emerging from cities in the global North, this paper aims to explore urban food policies under the lens of a global South perspective, paying particular attention to African cities and taking into account the common elements they present -compared with other urban contexts and territories- but also the specificities and uniqueness of them with respect to the process of urbanization and the linkages existing amongst cities and food. Urban food policies are powerful institutional actions, able to build more sustainable food systems of contemporary cities. These innovative policies are designed with a systemic and cross-sectoral approach, capable of acting at the intersection of different issues and fields such as water, waste, planning, health, transport, education, environment, trade, but also food and nutrition security, self-sufficiency and food sovereignty. We will describe an overview of initiatives developed in African cities, in view of the values stemming from the New Urban Agenda and the recommended actions by the recent Milan Urban Food Policy Pact, as an inspiring and propelling opportunity for new forms of territorial partnerships which could promote new types of cooperation amongst cities, universities, research bodies and civil society organizations from global North and South. Our research follows also the broader Italian development agenda. Under this light we will describe the mobilization of a number of institutional actors towards enhancing collaboration with the African context, drawing a geography of priorities, places and initiatives that are being activated in this field. The paper will identify a series of cross-cutting issues (such as land tenure, climate change, urban agriculture, rural-urban migration, waste management) to create a set of interpretative geographies, comparing cases across different African perspectives (for instance, environmental and socio-cultural) to identify common grounds and regional features

Alla ricerca del city-region food system: dalle teorie alle pratiche. Riflessioni e possibilità per le città italiane e Torino in particolare

A partire dalla presentazione di uno studio dedicato all’analisi dell’area funzionale di Torino, l’articolo riflette su come la conoscenza che viene prodotta intorno alle singole componenti del sistema locale del cibo possa essere valorizzata e diventare il tassello per un ragionamento più ampio e maggiormente integrato per la pianificazione e governance del sistema locale del cibo per le città italiane. Di fronte ad un deficit informativo non trascurabile, alle difficoltà di integrare dati e scale di competenza, scale di organizzazione e scale di azione dei processi legati all’atto del mangiare e a tutto ciò che lo precede e ne consegue, è necessaria una maggiore integrazione degli aspetti teorici con quelli pratici e soprattutto anche politici

Characterization of the degree of food processing in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition: Application of the Nova classification and validation using selected biomarkers of food processing

Background: Epidemiological studies have demonstrated an association between the degree of food processing in our diet and the risk of various chronic diseases. Much of this evidence is based on the international Nova classification system, which classifies food into four groups based on the type of processing: (1) Unprocessed and minimally processed foods, (2) Processed culinary ingredients, (3) Processed foods, and (4) “Ultra-processed” foods (UPF). The ability of the Nova classification to accurately characterise the degree of food processing across consumption patterns in various European populations has not been investigated so far. Therefore, we applied the Nova coding to data from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) in order to characterize the degree of food processing in our diet across European populations with diverse cultural and socio-economic backgrounds and to validate this Nova classification through comparison with objective biomarker measurements. Methods: After grouping foods in the EPIC dataset according to the Nova classification, a total of 476,768 participants in the EPIC cohort (71.5% women; mean age 51 [standard deviation (SD) 9.93]; median age 52 [percentile (p)25–p75: 58–66] years) were included in the cross-sectional analysis that characterised consumption patterns based on the Nova classification. The consumption of food products classified as different Nova categories were compared to relevant circulating biomarkers denoting food processing, measured in various subsamples (N between 417 and 9,460) within the EPIC cohort via (partial) correlation analyses (unadjusted and adjusted by sex, age, BMI and country). These biomarkers included an industrial transfatty acid (ITFA) isomer (elaidic acid; exogenous fatty acid generated during oil hydrogenation and heating) and urinary 4-methyl syringol sulfate (an indicator for the consumption of smoked food and a component of liquid smoke used in UPF). Results: Contributions of UPF intake to the overall diet in % grams/day varied across countries from 7% (France) to 23% (Norway) and their contributions to overall % energy intake from 16% (Spain and Italy) to >45% (in the UK and Norway). Differences were also found between sociodemographic groups; participants in the highest fourth of UPF consumption tended to be younger, taller, less educated, current smokers, more physically active, have a higher reported intake of energy and lower reported intake of alcohol. The UPF pattern as defined based on the Nova classification (group 4;% kcal/day) was positively associated with blood levels of industrial elaidic acid (r = 0.54) and 4-methyl syringol sulfate (r = 0.43). Associations for the other 3 Nova groups with these food processing biomarkers were either inverse or non-significant (e.g., for unprocessed and minimally processed foods these correlations were –0.07 and –0.37 for elaidic acid and 4-methyl syringol sulfate, respectively). Conclusion: These results, based on a large pan-European cohort, demonstrate sociodemographic and geographical differences in the consumption of UPF. Furthermore, these results suggest that the Nova classification can accurately capture consumption of UPF, reflected by stronger correlations with circulating levels of industrial elaidic acid and a syringol metabolite compared to diets high in minimally processed foods